Shellharbour city councillors have endorsed a mayoral minute from Marianne Saliba calling on the state government to extend nurse-to-patient ratios available in some city hospitals to all NSW hospitals.
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However the endorsement came after a heated exchange between Cr Saliba and the previous mayor, Kellie Marsh, over whether the issue should have come before the council in the first place.
Cr Saliba attended a NSW Nurses and Midwives Association rally at Shellharbour Hospital last month, aimed at putting pressure on Coalition MPs and raising community awareness about the importance of mandated ratios for nurses.
Under current ratios, Illawarra nurses look after five patients. But nurses in city hospitals such as Royal Prince Alfred and St George, which are classified as Peer Group A hospitals, care for four.
Cr Saliba said she had promised Shellharbour's nurses she would bring the matter to the council.
When Cr Marsh was mayor, she said, the council had dealt with many issues considered outside local government's area of responsibility, such as refugee-friendly zones and coal seam gas.
"I make no apologies at all for advocating on behalf of the people of Shellharbour City," Cr Saliba told Tuesday night's council meeting.
Cr Marsh responded that councillors would always deal with issues outside the council's responsibility.
"But I certainly can't recall a time council was pushing or promoting union business in the chamber.
"If we are going to bring union business to the table here at council, I hope we prioritise that with the union business of council workers."
Cr Marsh said negotiations between the nurses' association and the NSW government were still taking place and it would be premature to act on the mayoral minute now. This was especially since the current award had been negotiated by the former Labor government, of which Cr Saliba was a part, and honoured by the Coalition.
"Since taking office the very proud Liberal Party, which I am a part of ... has delivered 4000 additional nurses - 186 in this region alone," Cr Marsh said.
Cr Peter Moran said that though he supported the mayoral minute, it did bring an "unnecessary level of partisan politics into the chamber".
"I'm disappointed with the way the debate has gone tonight," Cr Moran said.
Cr Saliba's motion was supported four votes to two, with Cr Marsh and fellow Liberal councillor Paul Rankin voting against.
